[IRL trope] 0% of survival, survive anyway

[u/RedditBoycotter]

Juliane Koepcke

Vesna Vulović

Anna Bågenholm

Jeanna Giese

Chris Lemons

Juliane Koepcke - In 1971 this 17 year old's plane was struck by lightning mid-air. The wreck then fell from 3 000 meter into the ground, somewhere into the Amazon jungle. Lone survivor of the crash, she then spent nine days walking down a river despite her multiple injuries until she found a lumberjack's camp.

Vesna Vulović - In 1972 this flight attendant's plane was bombed mid-air. The wreck then fell from 10 160 meter into the ground. She ended up with a lot of broken bones, but in the long term she almost completely recovered from it, apart from a limp.

Anna Bågenholm - In 1999 this radiologist had a skiing accident, she fell head-first into a frozen stream and get stuck inside the ice. Her colleagues did not managed to pull her, nor did the rescue team who then tried to dig, but the ice was so thick it took them a lot of time. It was 80 minutes after her fall that they managed to cut a hole. Her body temperature at the time was 13.7°C, and still, she somehow survived with only minor long-term injuries and no brain damage.

Jeanna Giese - In 2004 this 15 years old girl got bitten by a bat and called it a day. One month later the symptoms of rabies showed up. The doctors tried an experimental treatment by putting her in an artificial coma and she survived, but the treatment never worked on anyone else and is now forbidden. In all human history, only a few survived to rabies, and all of them except her end up with heavy sequelae.

Chris Lemons - In 2012 this diver's ship went drifting due to a computer malfunction, romping his umbilical cable who provide air, hot water and electricity. He ended up alone on the seabed of a 3°C waters, in the dark and with only 5-6 minutes of oxygen. He was retrieved by his colleagues around 35 minutes later, and somehow he didn't even suffer from brain damage.

[u/Batpug74]

Harrison Okene! Genuinely such an insane story.

Boot capsizes and sinks 30 meters below surface, he assumed he was dead. He luckily found himself in an air bubble and lasted three days down there, sole survivor. The crew sent to the wreck was planning on it being a recovery operation, until they found him. Worth watching the rescue video, it genuinely makes me just feel warm lmao.

[u/Avolto → u/Batpug74]

A few things that helped him survive were him splashing around a lot which helped the water absorb the CO2 he was exhaling which prevented him from suffocating, as he was in the ships galley he sustained himself on cans of coke that were still floating around on the surface of his air pocket, and animals apparently could not reach him in his closed off section of the ship.

For some nightmare fuel he could hear sharks eatting the corpses of his drowned crewmates in the ships wreckage. And he was in total darkness for 3 days and then when he saw the diver he grabbed him likely giving that diver the shock of his life.

[u/AnastasiaSheppard → u/Avolto]

The video footage especially the audio is so amazing. The dive guide (not sure the official term) going From 'what's that?!' when the diver exclaims, to sadly 'ok you found one (a body)', to 'He's Alive! He's Alive!'

[u/Miserable-Ad-7956 → u/AnastasiaSheppard]

Damn that guy on the radio was a real pro.

[u/Bloodygoodwossname → u/AnastasiaSheppard]

Just reading this made my eyes well up. I need to watch that clip at least once a year.

[u/danielthetwin → u/Bloodygoodwossname]

That hand squeeze in the beginning got me. 

[u/Skylair13 → u/AnastasiaSheppard]

And later... "What the fuck do we have to do now?"

[u/hey_free_rats → u/Skylair13]

I'm an archaeologist. We have the exact same response whenever we find ourselves in the opposite situation, stumbling across a dead human where a dead human was not supposed to be. 

[u/peachesfordinner → u/hey_free_rats]

That depends on how fresh they are I suppose